The creative industries in the UK are booming and an increasingly important part of the economy, with growth outgunning that in finance and insurance and employment up by 5 per cent between 2013 and 2014 against a 2.1 per cent UK average. But the captains of industry who oversee the million-pound art sales, the publishing companies and the advertising conglomerates that returned £77 billion of direct GVA in 2012-2013 know that it is not just their business acumen that makes them a success story.

For the first time, top British entrepreneurs and business leaders, from Melanie Clore, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, to Tom Weldon, CEO Penguin Random House, internet businesswoman Baroness Lane-Fox to Caroline Rush, CEO British Fashion Council, explain in this report why they see public investment in culture as crucial to what they do…